In the wake of the ongoing controversy over select Young Adult books at the West Bend Community Memorial Library, the Intellectual Freedom Round Table of the Wisconsin Library Association has named Director Michael Tyree and Young Adult Librarian Kristin Pekoll,…
Read More West Bend Public Library Wins Wisconsin ProQuest Intellectual Freedom Award
The West Bend library controversy continues to escalate....with calls for book burning and growing national exposure (and, unfortunately, ridicule). Here's the (abridged) history and escalation: [Updated on 6/19/09 to include ABC News coverage, and 7/22/09 to include CNN] 02/15/2009: Ginny…
Read More West Bend Library Controversy Continues to Escalate
The West Bend Community Memorial Library board held a public meeting this evening to consider the request from the "West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries" that the library remove books they consider to be "obscene" or "child pornography" from a…
I've written frequently about how the shift from accessing information in offline spaces to online spaces has particular privacy implications. For example, strikingly different privacy norms and expectations emerge when comparing information-seeking activities in libraries vs. bookstores vs. Google Book…
Read More Stutzman: Google exposes Book Search patron records
Hannah Yale, and art student here at UW-Milwaukee, has created an amazing gurellia art project, in collaboration with the UWM Library, called "The Original Google Project." Here's the description from its Facebook page: This project was designed as a collaboration…
The controversy over the status of various GLBTQ-themed books (and now, apparently, any "sexually explicit" books) in the young adult section at the West Bend Library has taken a turn for the worse. The city's common council voted against reappointing…
In recent weeks, two citizens of West Bend, Wisconsin have petitioned the West Bend Community Memorial Library to remove gay-themed books from a section designated “Young Adults,” arguing the books should be reclassified and placed in a restricted area requiring…
Read More UW-M School of Information Studies Statement of Support for the West Bend Library
I'm attending the Library 2.0 Symposium organized by the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. We're only an hour into the agenda, and it has already been an incredibly provocative and enlightening event. You can follow the Twitter stream…
Read More Follow the Library 2.0 Symposium at Yale Law School
Banned Books Week 2008 is being celebrated September 27 - October 4, and is the 27th annual celebration of the freedom to choose what we read, as well as to select from a full array of possibilities. According to the…
As Banned Books Week near (September 27-October 4), Nancy Kranich, past president of the American Library Association, reminds us of the many attempts to restrict our right to read, including an example from Wasilla, Alaska: This year's banned book focal…
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